"Despite the demonetization drive, which has affected domestic and export industry sentiment, the Yarn Fabric & Accessories Trade Show; YFA 2016 which held from November 23-26, 2016 in New Delhi, saw visitor numbers going up 15 per cent over previous edition to touch 8,598 buyers. A majority of the 148 exhibitors participating at the show also expressed satisfaction with the numbers as well as quality of the buyers."

Despite the demonetization drive, which has affected domestic and export industry sentiment, the Yarn Fabric & Accessories Trade Show; YFA 2016 which held from November 23-26, 2016 in New Delhi, saw visitor numbers going up 15 per cent over previous edition to touch 8,598 buyers. A majority of the 148 exhibitors participating at the show also expressed satisfaction with the numbers as well as quality of the buyers.

As against around 100 exhibitors in 2015, there were 148 participating companies at YFA 2016. The highlights of the exhibition were fashion shows held throughout the day on all the days as well as in the evening. There was also a Chinese pavilion, in which 36 Chinese exhibitors showcased innovative yarns, fabrics and garment accessories.

Who’s who make their presence

The exhibitor list included the who’s who of Indian and global textile industry across the textile value chain from fibres to garment accessories, including the likes of Indo Rama Synthetics, Bhilosa Industries, Vardhman Textiles, and many others. Some companies exhibited and a few launched innovative and latest developments in value-added textile products like speciality fibres, multifunctional yarns, mélange yarns, spandex yarn, embroidery yarn, bamboo fabrics, modal fabrics and several unique garment accessories.

Among the visitors, were sourcing heads, purchase managers, head merchandisers, country managers etc. YFA Trade Show 2016 New Delhi also saw buying houses for H&M, Gap, Triburg, Decathlon, Marubeni India, Impulse, ITOCHU India, Alliance, TQM Global Buying, NEXT Sourcing, JC Penney, and many more.

Speaking about his experience, Maheshwari, Director, Nimbark Fashions, said, “Despite the currency crisis, we have had genuine as well as decision makers visiting our booth. We were able to make new contacts.” Pinkesh Jain, CMD, Everflow Petrofils, added, “We are satisfied with our participation at the YFA 2016 show. We have seen a steady stream of buyers visiting our stall, not just from Delhi or North India, but also other parts of India, which includes, buying houses, exporters, domestic brands, etc.”

“We met many new as well as existing buyers. It was satisfying to revive relations with buyers who used to purchase from our mills earlier,” said Pankaj Bhardwaj, AVP (Yarn Marketing) at Nahar Industrial Enterprises. “We had a good number of buyers at our stall and met many buyers from buying houses, exporters, etc and also from foreign countries,” said Tina Zhang, Hubei Jinghua Group from China.

Insightful conference

A textile conference in association with TIT-Bhiwani and the Textile Association of India (TAI) Delhi was also arranged on the sidelines on Day-1. The first panel discussion was on ‘Growth & Prospects of Handloom Industry,’ and the second panel discussion was on ‘Make in India – Innovation in Textiles’. This was followed by a presentation by Prof Rajendrakumar Anayath, Director, TIT Bhiwani on ‘Beyond Engineering: Emergent Materials & the next Interface’. ‘Titoba’, an alumnus meet, with a gathering of more than 400 top industry professionals, in association with TIT Bhiwani and again the Textile Association of India (TAI) Delhi was also organized.